The disclosure relates in general to a system and method for controlling an electronic system in communication with a vehicle and, more particularly, to a system and method for interacting with a vehicle human-machine interface (HMI) using gaze or eye tracking.
Many vehicles include user interfaces to allow a vehicle operator or passenger to control functions relating to the vehicle or other connected electronic systems, such as navigation, entertainment, or climate control systems. The user interfaces may include mechanical controls, such as button, knobs, dials, and the like, mounted into the vehicle's dashboard. Usually, these mechanical control interfaces are integrated with various displays that are used to provide information to the user.
Because the size of a vehicle's dashboard is limited, the mechanical control elements and any displays mounted therein share a limited amount of space. The space limitation restricts the amount of information that may be simultaneously displayed to the user. In addition, only a few control elements may be available to operate, where the control elements control a larger number of functions that may be offered to the user. Some vehicles, therefore, include a touch screen to simultaneously provide both device control interfaces and display functionality.
Both touch screen devices and conventional mechanical controls, though, require that the user physically interact with the device, either by manipulating a mechanical control device or touching a touch screen. These actions require that a vehicle driver take his or her hands off the steering wheel, possibly creating a dangerous situation.
In contrast to conventional control systems, eye gaze control systems provide an HMI that allows the user to interact with the vehicle without taking his or her hands off the vehicle's steering wheel. In general, the eye gaze control systems use one or more imaging devices or cameras in combination with an image processor to track the user's eyes and determine a direction in which the user is looking. The system then displays a number of icons on a screen. Each icon is associated with a particular device function.
The user interacts with the displayed icons by looking directly at a particular icon that is associated with a desired function. The eye gaze control system then determines at which one of the displayed icons the user is looking. That determination can then be used to perform a particular action associated with the icon. These eye gaze control systems, therefore, allow a user to interact with a display screen just by looking at a particular icon or image displayed on the screen.
Unfortunately, conventional eye gaze systems suffer from a number of deficiencies. A normal human eye is constantly moving, even when focused on a particular object. This movement or ‘jitter’ can make selecting a target icon on a display screen difficult. As the eye moves, the eye gaze control system may register that the eye is flickering back-and-forth, between being directed to the icon and not being directed to the icon. This causes the icon to flicker between being selected and not being selected. As a result, the jitter may cause the user to be unable to cause a particular target icon to be selected. Conversely, the jitter may result in the user accidentally selecting an unintended target icon.
Exacerbating this problem, many eye gaze control systems indicate that the user has selected a particular icon by displaying a border around the icon to demonstrate that the icon is selected. However, when the border is displayed, the user's eye will often move, sometimes subconsciously, to the edge of the icon to look at the newly-displayed border. Because the border is at the periphery of the icon, any natural jitter in the user's eye will cause the user's gaze to move outside of the icon, possibly causing the icon to be deselected. Even if this deselection is only temporary (as the jitter may cause the user's gaze to again be positioned over the icon), the icon will be temporarily deselected making it difficult for the user to control the eye gaze detection system.